DELTONA, Fla. — A new sentencing hearing has been ordered for a man facing four death sentences for one of Deltona's grizzliest massacres.
A judge in Florida on Wednesday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Troy Victorino because the jury was not unanimous in determining that he deserved the death sentence.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled last year that death sentences have to be unanimous, and anyone sentenced after a 2002 ruling could be eligible for a new sentence.
Victorino was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder in 2006. He was given four death sentences and two life sentences in the case, which was dubbed "the Xbox murders."
In 2004, Victorino and three other men broke into a Deltona home he had been evicted from to retrieve his belongings, which included an Xbox, investigators said.
The four men tortured six people at the residence, stabbing them several times and then beating them to death with baseball bats.
Victorino also sexually assaulted a female victim after she was dead and stomped a dog to death, investigators said.
Prosecutors portrayed Victorino as the group's ringleader, something his defense attorneys denied.
Because Victorino was convicted more than a decade ago, presenting a case in a new sentencing hearing will be difficult for prosecutors, WFTV legal analyst and former chief judge Belvin Perry said.
"Are the witnesses still there? Are they still available to testify? Have they forgotten details that were fresh in their minds at that time?" Perry asked. "It will not be the same jury that heard all of the testimony. This jury will get the 'Reader's Digest' version of the trial."
Prosecotors have 90 days to re-sentence Victorino, unless his defense attorneys ask for more time.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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